Summoned Celestial Divine BeastC256: Crimson Duel of Fate (Bonus)The Ashton estate had never been a quiet place, not even when it pretended to be. Nobility had a way of turning everything into a performance, and the Ashton family was no exception. The acting count sat at his desk, the quill trembling in his hand as if it wanted to flee the room. His wife stood opposite him with a smug smile that had the wrong kind of confidence, the kind that always belonged to someone who had never actually suffered a consequence.“What did you say?” the count asked, voice low, controlled, but cracking at the edge.His wife didn’t miss a beat. “I said Victor forced her into a duel.” She leaned forward, the smile widening as she enjoyed the drama of it. “It’s simple, really. They let their vampires fight for them. Selena—Chaollete Ashley—might summon a countess as her first familiar, but Victor’s fourth familiar is a marquis. A marquis.”The word landed like a slap. The count’s body stiffened, his p

Title: Summoned Celestial Divine BeastC258: The Kidnapping of RyanThe arena was a storm of sound, a pressure cooker of cheering and tension, where every shout and breath seemed to reverberate through the stone walls like a drumbeat. The match had reached its peak, and the air itself tasted like metal and sweat, the kind of atmosphere where even the bravest would feel their courage start to wobble.Victor stood at the edge of the arena, his eyes blazing with arrogance, the kind that only comes from believing your own reputation has become a god. His familiar, a vampire with eyes like black garnets, hovered beside him with a predatory grace, its fangs glinting in the harsh lights. Opposite them, Chaollete Ashley stood calm, a poised smile on her lips that didn’t quite reach her eyes.The match had been unfair from the start, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Chaollete had made sure it looked fair, and in this world, appearances were everyth

Summoned Celestial Divine BeastC260: The Forest Queen’s FuryThe moment Flora and Lovelia burst through the door, the entire room seemed to inhale at once, as if the walls themselves sensed that something was terribly wrong. The two girls weren’t running, not really. They were stumbling, gasping, and dragging air into their lungs like it was their last chance at survival.Flora’s face was pale, her eyes wide and frantic. “Vice Principal… Ryan… Ryan…” she panted, the words falling apart as her body shook.Vivian’s expression immediately shifted, her calm façade cracking like glass. “What happened to Ryan? Is he harassing someone again?” she asked, voice tight. She wasn’t joking. With Ryan’s reputation, it wasn’t impossible.Flora’s eyes flickered, and her mouth opened again, but the words came out like a punch. “Ryan has been kidnapped!”The sentence hit the room like a bomb. Vivian’s heart sank, her entire body stiffening.“

262: The Pawn’s Awakening in the Shadow of a WolfAxel’s eyes widened until they looked like they might fall out of his skull, and the shock that flooded his face was not the kind that came from surprise, but the kind that came from realizing he had been dancing to someone else’s tune for far longer than he had ever bothered to notice.“Just think about it,” Ryan said, letting the words hang in the air like a knife, because he didn’t need to shout to make a point, and he didn’t need to threaten to prove he was already winning. “Since you like chess so much, I’ll use it as an analogy. The reason I’m moving my pieces is because the black pawn has moved, exposing the king. You and I never play chess.”Axel stood up abruptly, his body stiff with insult and indignation, because being compared to a pawn was an insult no ambitious person could tolerate, especially not someone who believed they were already playing the game better than everyone else.“You

264: The Afterglow of a StormThe aftermath of the battle had drawn a crowd, not because students were naturally curious about violence, but because the academy had finally done something worth noticing, and that was rare enough to be worth lingering over. People slowed their steps without even realizing it, as if the air itself had thickened around the courtyard, making it difficult to move forward. Murmurs rose like a swarm of insects, chaotic and relentless, as everyone tried to piece together what had just happened. The truth was simple, but the students refused to accept anything straightforward, because the human mind loves drama more than it loves facts.“What the hell is going on?” someone whispered, voice barely audible over the hum of confused voices.“The student council is fighting someone,” another replied, eyes wide as if he could see the conflict replaying in his head.“Look, teachers are coming,” a girl said, pointing toward the bu